Tasteful    Ch1: Liking the Feel of It
by royalvintage
Summary: When Hiei is assigned to a mission by Koenma to go undercover with an assassin to find her partners, he encounters an unexpected problem: she is wickedly entrancing. Merce finds herself amused by this employer and agrees to a bizarre situation.


Tasteful

Chapter One: Liking the Feel of It

Merce was a simple sort of woman. She cared only about her job and her survival. This was what she explained to each of her clients before taking on a job. Her only limitation, she also added, was killing a human younger than the age of fifteen. Besides that, "anyone is free to be targeted." As long as she gets her paycheck.

Rarely did she ever explain to a human that she was a demon. When they asked the assassin how she killed her targets, she would spout off nonsense about assorted technology and weapons and the like. In truth, all she really used were her demon powers, if necessary, and her sword. Humans were skeptical of anything not like them and tended to reject the notion that someone could be killed so easily. In fact, being stabbed or sliced to death was one of the easiest ways to go unnoticed. Even if forensics figured out that the cuts were made by a sword, they would be hard-pressed to figure out who in the world (_their_ world, anyways) would use one to kill.

Typically, Merce would only discuss business matters over the phone, if they were human, or through some sort of spiritual device, if they were demon. While she only attacked humans, some demons couldn't get over to the human world and would, once in a while, require a demon already there to service their needs. This particular commission, however, was an unusual one, which brought Merce to her current situation.

The client was a powerful demon already _in_ the human world. This had never happened before. Through planted telepathic messages, a demon contacted her, claiming to be the infamous Hiei. After the Spirit Detective's stunt in the Four Saint Beasts' castle, the demons Hiei and Kurama and the humans Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara were well-known throughout the demon circles. Merce had difficulty believing the client was truly Hiei, but agreed to meet with the demon anyways. She had been promised a great reward.

Standing lonesome in the middle of a park at night, the tall demon looked cautiously around for her client. She was an odd-looking character, with angular features, a wiry, thin frame, and light blond hair. Her hair was, for the most part, quite short, except for the single long, thick braid just behind her left ear that hung to her knees behind her. Merce's outfit constituted all-black. The top was sleeveless and the bottom was merely black, thin pants. She wore a thick belt that gave her a sort of waist-cape as well as a sash hanging down the front. Her arms were covered with long gloves that reached the top of her forearm, with four or five thick bracelets piled onto each wrist. Everything had a muted, golden-bronze-yellow color for thin borders and decorations. Her impish eyes were a deep amber as they searched the park for any sign of life.

A tree not far behind her and to the left rustled uncharacteristically. Her left hand twitched, wanting to draw the sword strapped to her right side. Slowly she turned and murmured, "Fancy seeing you here." A figure gracefully dropped out of the tree, into the shadows cast by the branches.

"Would you, perchance, be my client?"

"I am." The voice was surprisingly deep and self-assured, with an almost casual sort of mocking ring to it. The figure stepped forward and a look of shock registered on Merce's face.

The figure was small, not even five feet tall, but had a powerful sense to it. He has spiky black hair with a white starburst over his forehead. He seemed to be all sharp lines, his eyes a weaponized red. The black cloak he wore ran to his mid-calf with a white scarf wrapped loosely about his neck. This was almost certainly Hiei. It was just as he was described.

Taking a more careful note of him, though, Merce realized there was a lot of Hiei left out of the whispers. They had never described how cunningly attractive he was, with a lean sort of musculature hidden beneath his clothing.

"I see you were suspicious of me," Hiei commented lightly.

"Well, it seemed prudent at the time. If you _were_ Hiei, I would need to proceed with caution because of your power and reputation. If you _weren't_ Hiei, then you were trying to trick me for some reason," Merce shrugged in a fashion that would irritate most people.

"Your lack of concern could cost you your life here." Hiei's eyes threatened unshakably.

"Ooh, bonus points for alliteration." The irritation on her client's face grew more noticeable.

"I suggest you take this seriously-"

"You said you needed me for a hit," Merce gestured boredly with her left hand. "Care to share? Who do you want taken out?" The short demon stood silent for several seconds.

"I have a different sort of proposition," he finally replied. Merce raised an eyebrow inquiringly. He had her full attention now. Squaring her shoulders and crossing her arms, she looked at him with intense eyes.

"I'm proposing a long-term arrangement. We would be required to stay in the same residence."

"Am I your favorite assassin or something?"

"Hardly." Hiei smirked mockingly. With his hands in his pockets, his posture changed slightly. He was no longer standing straight, but was now leaning back slightly at the waist with his back curved, giving him a slightly more menacing look.

"No, I need to assess you myself. Not only your ability, but your capability as well. I've already told you the price… That will be per week."

"_Week?_ That's quite impressive… I think I will accept." Thinking quickly, Merce added with a casual wave of her right hand, "I already have a residence we can use. When will you be coming?"

"Now," he replied without hesitation.

"Fine." She began to speed off towards their south, a concentrated look on her face. The abrupt departure was only because he'd said now, and she didn't think he was the most patient type. He caught up with her immediately, much to her expectations.

"Just so you know, I don't care one way or other about who I kill besides the requirement that they need to be older than fifteen years, if human. They pay a lot more attention when a child is killed, so it's just too much unnecessary risk. Other than that, anything goes." Hiei simply nodded curtly.

Within an hour, they had reached a forest. Clearly a manmade one, based on the exacting distance between each tree and the way the forest seemed to look **friendly**. Gesturing to Hiei, Merce walked forward into the trees. He followed, glancing about unobtrusively at his surroundings. After about twenty minutes of walking, they reached a clearing where a fair-sized house sat. It was two stories, probably with a basement as well. It had a subtle green and brown theme that actually helped it blend with the forest from afar.

"This is my human-world household." Merce glanced at him with a hint of a smirk. "Cozy, huh?" Hiei chose not to reply. They entered her house - the front door was unlocked - and proceeded into a stylish living room. It had a wood theme, the color being mostly a mahogany type of wood. With a large television screen and a long couch in front of it, with assorted tables and warm decorations it felt like it had been lived in for a while.

"Lemme show you around." Merce walked into a room adjacent to the right. "This is the kitchen," she explained. This room was glass-themed, with many solid glass sculptures on the counters and walls and a clear coloring to most of the decorations. The was a good-sized median right in the middle as well. Traipsing back through the living room, Merce proceeded to show Hiei where the bathrooms were. There was also a library, "believe it or not," on the first floor. It was a small, warm room with green tones and large, poofy, comfy chairs.

"I needed _something_ to do with this room," Merce explained with that irritating shrug. Next, she brought him to a set of stairs that were in the living room.

"These go up to the second floor. I'll show you my room and your room later. Mine's at the end of the hall, yours is right in front of the steps."

"There better had not be an _adorable_ theme to that room," he commented sarcastically. Merce laughed and didn't answer. Moving on, she showed him the stairs leading to the basement just to the right of the other stairs.

"That leads to the basement. Pretty boring; just weapons and storage." Hiei stared at her.

"Are we done with your little show-and-tell?"

"Ooh, someone sounds grumpy. You hungry or something?" Merce glanced down at him. At four feet and ten inches, Hiei was a full eight inches shorter than Merce. His eyes were level with her collarbone. He didn't like feeling that she was looking down at him. Craning his face upwards slightly, he lowered one eyebrow dangerously.

"I don't find you particularly amusing, Assassin," he snapped.

" 'Assassin?' Is that what you're calling me? Thought you already knew my name was Merce," she replied with mild surprise, completely ignoring the rest of his statement. His face registered great irritation as his lip curled upward.

"Whatever, Grumpy. Let's go make some food," she suggested perkily, walking into the kitchen. Hiei stood at the base of both stairs for several seconds, fuming, before following her.

Merce was already preparing assorted bowls, mixers, and ingredients. Pulling over a box, she began to read the back. Hiei was surprised.

"Is that some sort of… cake thing?" His hands were planted firmly in his pockets, as usual, but his face was surprisingly disgusted.

"Cake Mix, to be exact. We can eat something healthy later," she shrugged, adding absentmindedly, "Would you hand me those two eggs over there, please? And the milk?" His eyes bored into her like she had asked him to commit suicide. Merce looked up from the instructions to find that Hiei hadn't moved and proceeded to call him a sissy. With great irritation, Hiei handed her the eggs and milk, mumbling something dark.

"Ooh, sassy. So," Merce began, mixing the concoction the Cake Mix required, "What sort of hit will I be making?"

"What sort of **what**?"

"Hit. It's like, '_who you gonna call?_ " Merce cracked a crazy grin. The reference flew straight over his head, if his expression was any indication.

"Who did you want me to kill?" Merce explained tiredly, the stirring of the mix rhythmic. The demon seemed to relax slightly, now on a more familiar topic: killing.

"I won't give you all the details yet; you don't need to know them. But I _will_ tell you that you will be killing someone rather important."

"Can I ask why you want to hire a hitman?"

"No."

"That's no fun!" Merce grinned wickedly, but then her expression became serious. "But how do I know you're not working with those Spirit Detectives?"

"Do you _really_ think you'd be of any importance to them?" Hiei rolled his eyes, taking his hands out of his pockets to cross his arms.

"If they figured out all the recent hits were by me, then maybe. Spirit Detectives tend to have a lot of free time when it comes to insignificant demons," Merce replied modestly. "Ah, done stirring." With that, she proceeded to ignore her current employer and pour the chocolatey cake mix into a glass pan. She realized the like the feel of it. Messing with Hiei, that is. With a raised eyebrow, Hiei watched as she put the silly thing in the oven. He realized it was already preheated; she must have turned it on before he came into the kitchen. Turning back towards him, she said, "Well. How am I supposed to know?" Hiei seemed to think carefully for a moment before replying.

"I didn't help those two humans out of any personal choice. I was allowed out of the demon prisons for helping them. I couldn't give a damn one way or another about their fates… only mine." Merce stared at him.

"Good answer…" Seeming satisfied with that, she turned and picked up the glass bowl that still had chocolate all over it. Picking up the wooden spoon on the counter, she asked, "Would you like to lick to bowl?" After dipping the spoon into the bowl, she slowly licked the chocolate off of it. Hiei felt stirred; what was this?

"No, I'm fine."

"You're missing out…" Merce added teasingly. "You could have a lot of fun…"

"I don't care!" Hiei snapped. Merce looked at him and ran her finger along the inside of the bowl, then slowly sucked the chocolate off of her finger.

"That's too bad… You would've enjoyed it…" Hiei abruptly turned and left. He heard her giggle behind him.

_Damn_ that woman! She was toying with him. Hiei didn't like the feeling. She was trying to confuse him with all sorts of silly, human behaviors. He was actually relieved to find that he had bought his bluff, though; that had surprised him.

In truth, Hiei was actually here on Spirit Detective business. It was just more work forced upon him by Koenma. The Spirit World had been relatively aware of a steadily increasing number of fatal stabbings. Finally, they had figured out who the hitman was: Merce. They knew little about her. Koenma found it difficult to believe that she was committing all this on her own. He forced Hiei to enter an undercover mission to find out who else was involved.

Sitting in the guest bedroom, he was reflected on Merce's personality. She definitely let on more than she knew, he thought. Especially about him. Merce was a deadly mind-game strategist, he believed. Certainly, she was not very powerful. He could easily kill her, but that was not his mission. Musing, Hiei decided that he needed to find a way to get her into his confidence. But how? Usually, when he wanted information, he simply stole it or beat it out of someone. That approach wouldn't work with this demon, though, or this situation.

With a heavy sigh, Hiei laid back onto the bed. He closed his eyes in deep thought, his ears poised to catch any potential approach. Soon, he would be bothered out of his reverie…


End file.
